For some reason beyond my comprehension, Labour has decided to rehabilitate Tony Blair in an effort to help them win the election.
He made his first intervention criticising the Tories for inconsistency and indecision while praising Gordon Brown for experience, judgment and boldness at the Labour Club in his old constituency in Sedgefield.
He said that during his decade in power he had always been known as an optimist, and he was still optimistic about Britain. (So would I be if I have a hundredth of his money.) He said: "Strange as it might seem, the financial crisis does not diminish this optimism. We are not out of the woods yet; but we are on the path
out.” (Easy to say when none of it hurt you at all!)
Mr Blair's analysis is that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling made the right decisions during the financial crisis and should now be trusted to lead the recovery. (Except of course that if Brown wins the election, Alistair Darling won’t be anywhere, and we’re looking at Ed Balls for chancellor.)
"At the moment of peril the world acted. Britain acted," he said. "The decision to act required experience, judgment and boldness. It required leadership. Gordon Brown supplied it." (Ye gads, while he was swanking round the world making money with our security guards looking after him, did he even look at the newspapers?)
He accused the Tories of going to the right over Europe; going liberal when actually they should have stuck with a traditional Conserv
ative position on law and order; and on the economy, of worrying too much about public opinion (That’s rich!)
He further accused them of being confused compared to Labour which had “chosen its path. It is mapped out. It is consistent. It is solid. It matches a strong commitment to public services with a strong commitment to reform."
Mr Blair listed Labour’s achievements so far: reduced crime, higher standards in schools, hospital waiting lists reduced from 18 months to 18 weeks. (All English only issues. He didn’t mention illegal wars or soldiers’ deaths, or MPs who think that they should not have to face the courts.)
He said that the country needed strong leadership. (He seemed to have forgotten that it is Brown we are talking about here; Brown who is renowned the world over for his dithering, for his inability to decide about anything except when he loses his temper.)
I wonder how much Labour is paying him for this intervention. I’m not sure that it is money well spent. Many people see Blair at best as insincere, at worst as a war criminal with the deaths of hundreds of thousand
s of innocent Iraqis and British soldiers on his hands. Almost everyone must be disgusted at the way he has made money (estimated at £20 million) since he left office and that he had all his expenses paperwork destroyed, including repairs to his house the week before he left office.
I’ve never met anyone who likes him and the comments on the Times article which is my source for this post seem to bear that out.
I wouldn’t want him in my corner. Would you?
He made his first intervention criticising the Tories for inconsistency and indecision while praising Gordon Brown for experience, judgment and boldness at the Labour Club in his old constituency in Sedgefield.
He said that during his decade in power he had always been known as an optimist, and he was still optimistic about Britain. (So would I be if I have a hundredth of his money.) He said: "Strange as it might seem, the financial crisis does not diminish this optimism. We are not out of the woods yet; but we are on the path
out.” (Easy to say when none of it hurt you at all!)Mr Blair's analysis is that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling made the right decisions during the financial crisis and should now be trusted to lead the recovery. (Except of course that if Brown wins the election, Alistair Darling won’t be anywhere, and we’re looking at Ed Balls for chancellor.)
"At the moment of peril the world acted. Britain acted," he said. "The decision to act required experience, judgment and boldness. It required leadership. Gordon Brown supplied it." (Ye gads, while he was swanking round the world making money with our security guards looking after him, did he even look at the newspapers?)
He accused the Tories of going to the right over Europe; going liberal when actually they should have stuck with a traditional Conserv
ative position on law and order; and on the economy, of worrying too much about public opinion (That’s rich!)He further accused them of being confused compared to Labour which had “chosen its path. It is mapped out. It is consistent. It is solid. It matches a strong commitment to public services with a strong commitment to reform."
Mr Blair listed Labour’s achievements so far: reduced crime, higher standards in schools, hospital waiting lists reduced from 18 months to 18 weeks. (All English only issues. He didn’t mention illegal wars or soldiers’ deaths, or MPs who think that they should not have to face the courts.)
He said that the country needed strong leadership. (He seemed to have forgotten that it is Brown we are talking about here; Brown who is renowned the world over for his dithering, for his inability to decide about anything except when he loses his temper.)
I wonder how much Labour is paying him for this intervention. I’m not sure that it is money well spent. Many people see Blair at best as insincere, at worst as a war criminal with the deaths of hundreds of thousand
s of innocent Iraqis and British soldiers on his hands. Almost everyone must be disgusted at the way he has made money (estimated at £20 million) since he left office and that he had all his expenses paperwork destroyed, including repairs to his house the week before he left office.I’ve never met anyone who likes him and the comments on the Times article which is my source for this post seem to bear that out.
I wouldn’t want him in my corner. Would you?
Pic: Brown and Blair; Blair; Blair: Blair and Brown (And now I'll put my Iraq experience at the service of the Isaeli-Palestinian cause)
